Flotation of Zinc Oxide

Zinc ore is classified as sulfide ore and oxidized ore depending on its mineral content. Due to the depletion of sulfide ore, the development of oxidized zinc ore has attracted people's attention.

The flotation separation of zinc oxide minerals from gangue minerals with calcium, magnesium or iron at room temperature has always been a problem. Because of the interaction between the dissolved components and the mineral surface, the surface of the minerals is converted. Therefore, it is particularly difficult to separate the zinc oxide minerals from quarry minerals such as calcite, dolomite, and limonite.

At present, most flotation of zinc oxide ore is conducted by the vulcanizing flotation process, in which lead oxide is selected by adding xanthate after vulcanization. The recovery of zinc oxide is mainly by warming, vulcanization and copper sulfate activation, and then using xanthate or fatty amine to flotation. The amine flotation of zinc oxide ore is more sensitive to slimes and soluble salts, therefore, despite numerous researches and practices on flotation processes of zinc oxide ore at home and abroad, it has not been possible to solve the problems of low zinc oxide ore sorting indicators, complicated process flow, complex chemical species, and high cost. Therefore, the use of the simplest flotation process, conventional pharmacy, and cost-efficient flotation of zinc oxide ore is a very significant research direction.